


Third Wheel

by Sholio



Category: Iron Fist (TV)
Genre: Bonding, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 17:28:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21802126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: "Danny, are you inviting me along on your and Colleen'sdate nights?""What? No!" Danny said promptly. Then he looked thoughtful. Then he got a sort of deer-in-the-headlights look of realization."Yeah," Ward said. "That's what I thought."
Relationships: Danny Rand/Colleen Wing, Ward Meachum & Colleen Wing, Ward Meachum & Danny Rand
Comments: 18
Kudos: 96





	Third Wheel

**Author's Note:**

> I got a request on Tumblr for "ironwing + ward third wheeling", and this is where my brain went.

It wasn't really something Ward noticed at first when they got back to New York, or at least he didn't quite figure out what was going on at first, just because he was so used to a) being around Danny all the time (really more than he'd signed up for; having a little time alone now and then was a nice change), and b) Colleen looking at him like she expected him to turn around and try to sell Danny out to the highest bidder at the slightest opportunity, which, okay, fair.

And he figured if they didn't want him hanging around, they'd say something, right? Anyway, he wasn't going to say no if Danny invited him out for lunch, or over for movie night, or games night, or hot-pot night ...

And it wasn't like he had a fully engaged social calendar, if he was going to be completely honest with himself.

So he just kind of ... spent a whole lot of his free time with them, while Colleen alternated between being polite, halfway friendly even, and looking at him like she wanted to stab him in the ear with her katana.

It wasn't until they went out to a really fancy Italian place ("Hey Ward, Colleen and I are checking out this new place in Little Italy, want to come?") and Colleen spent the entire dinner being very, very polite and looking like she wanted to shove her spaghetti fork up his nose that he finally got it.

The penny dropped fully on the way out to the car. Somehow they'd ended up with a shared Uber to drop Ward off at his place and Danny and Colleen off at theirs ... and okay, how had he not realized what was happening earlier, honestly?

"Hey, can I talk to Danny for a minute?" he said, catching Danny by the arm. "Go tell the driver we'll be there in a minute."

Colleen looked slightly dubious, but she nodded and hurried down to the car that was just pulling in to double-park by the curb. Meanwhile, Ward dragged Danny off to a shady corner in the lee of the building's storefront.

"Danny, are you inviting me along on your and Colleen's _date nights?"_

"What? No!" Danny said promptly. Then he looked thoughtful. Then he got a sort of deer-in-the-headlights look of realization.

"Yeah," Ward said. "That's what I thought."

"I wasn't doing it on purpose! I mean ... she should have said something!"

She had, in a way, Ward now recognized, mostly by looking at him like she wanted to push him off the nearest balcony, but he was starting to realize that he wasn't sure if Colleen knew what was going on either; all she knew was that Ward was around all the time and she didn't understand why. Good God, out of the three of them, he might be the one who had the best grasp on how relationships were supposed to work, and he was the one whose only serious relationship in his entire life had been the NA sponsor that he'd knocked up who was currently not speaking to him.

If he was the first person to recognize why things were going off the rails, this was a sad, sad statement on all of their lives.

"Danny," Ward said, taking him by the shoulders. "Danny, you know that I love you." Strange how it had gotten so much easier to say that, to Danny, at least. "I'm now going to call my own ride to take me home. And if you call me to invite me to do anything for the next week, I will break your phone over your head. Go spend some one-on-one time with Colleen."

"But," Danny said, looking slightly wild-eyed. "I want to do things with Colleen _and_ you. I mean. Ward. We're family. It's not an either-or thing."

"I know," Ward said, giving him a little shake, while a warm feeling curled in his chest. "It's _not_ either-or, Danny, you dink, but sometimes you might want to spend time with just your girlfriend, and that's okay. You had an entire six months of just me in Asia. Now give Colleen some time for just her, okay? Call me in a week and we'll have lunch or go, I dunno, do something Colleen isn't interested in, like go to --" What was a guy bonding thing, god, he was drawing a blank. "-- a wrestling match or something --"

"Colleen loves wrestling," Danny said. "And you hate it."

"It's an _example._ What I mean is, you can spend time with Colleen, or you can spend time with me, and sometimes you can hang out with both of us, but you don't have to hang out with both of us all the time -- and why on earth am I having to explain this to you? You've been in a healthy relationship for more than two years now, while all of mine are flaming wreckage -- _Danny._ Go home with your girlfriend."

Danny stared at him, and then gave him a quick hug. "Okay, but don't be an idiot and think I don't want to hang out with you or anything," he said in Ward's ear.

"I don't think that. Now go home with Colleen before she trepans me with a salad fork. We're good, you're good, I'm good. _Go home."_

Danny grinned and patted him on the shoulder and ran off lightly down to the curb and Colleen. He spoiled the effect slightly by twisting around to wave from the Uber.

All in all, that had gone surprisingly well, given Ward's previous history of disastrous heart-to-heart talks with various members of his family. Huh. Maybe he was actually getting better at it.

*

Things were quiet and mostly Danny-less for three or four days, punctuated by Danny occasionally texting him, which in Ward's opinion displayed a surprising amount of restraint on Danny's part. It was a little bit lonely, but ... time to himself was kind of nice too. He caught up on some reading and got in a little time at the gym.

He definitely did not expect that the first of them he'd see would be Colleen, let alone that she’d turn up at his office around lunchtime.

 _Should I hide the sharp objects,_ was his first thought. But she was actually smiling a little bit.

"Don't worry, I won't keep you," she said. "I know you talked to Danny, because it took him all of half an hour to tell me."

He wasn't really sure what to say to that. _Sorry I crashed all your dates for the last couple of months?_ "He means well," he said instead.

"I _know,"_ Colleen said in a burst of half-fond, half-exasperated relief. "He's an absolute sweetheart who just wants everyone he cares about to like each other as much as he likes them, and I recognize that. I just ... you know ..."

"I know," Ward said.

An odd little smile peeked out, shy and happy. "So anyway," she said, "I just wanted to say thank you. That's all."

Ward already understood what Danny liked about Colleen: she was brave, and smart, and loyal, and most particularly she was loyal to Danny; and all those things mattered so much more to him than they ever had before. But there were occasionally times when it really _hit_ him, when there was a reflexive little sting of _Oh, so THAT'S why she's your one,_ and this was one of those times. 

And then she went on and said, "It's just that you were always _there,_ you know, and it was a bit much."

"You could have quit at 'thank you'."

She gave him a sort of a little half-smile, and then she said in a kind of rush, "Do you want to have lunch?"

"What?"

"Lunch. Just us. I ..." She shrugged. "I know you're going to be around for, well ... the future. You're part of Danny's life now. And I'm hungry. Do you want to grab something?"

He actually had a teleconference with an important overseas distributor in ten minutes, and a board meeting in forty-five, and ... screw it.

Family was more important.

"Yeah," he said. "Just let me tell Katie to wrap things up. It'll be a minute."

"Okay," she said, "I'll wait," and smiled a little, and he smiled back, and it felt like ... like a foundation, maybe. Like something they could build on.


End file.
